


Jakku Women

by SaintMiaWallace



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Bloodlust, Creature Rey, F/M, Hunting, Injured Kylo, Seduction, fast burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 05:46:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13183614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintMiaWallace/pseuds/SaintMiaWallace
Summary: Kylo Ren, while searching the Jakku wastes for Poe Dameron and his droid, stumbles across a sight he’s never seen before; a not-quite-human scavenger named Rey who has an uncontrollable taste for flesh.





	Jakku Women

“The droid is on Jakku,” said Lord Ren to General Hux. The slighter, fairer man’s brow furrowed. “That pilot hid the plans within the droid.”

“Well, if it's on Jakku, we’ll soon have it.”

“I shall go myself to see.”

Hux shrugged slightly. “My men will assist you.”

“As you wish. See they don't get in my way.”

Hux ignored the slight to his well trained division and half-turned to study the profile of the leader of the Knights of Ren. Kylo was in rare form tonight.

“They're ready and waiting.”

Ren stared out into space, studying the desert planet Jakku. The pilot Poe Dameron had been a thorn in his side for far too long. Today would be the day that he would be caught. Kylo would catch him personally. And oh, how he would enjoy torturing the truth out of Poe...

“Right,” he said. “Let’s commence.”

~*~

  
On-planet, Rey sighed heavily, straightening BB-8’s antenna. “You don't belong here,” she said quietly. “Nima outpost is that way.”

She stood and started up the dune to her makeshift home in the fallen AT-AT, but the little droid followed her. She rolled her eyes to the sky. Why did all the lost little desert creatures always follow her?

The brunette turned to scan the desert. The sun was setting rapidly. Sand, sand, sand all around. If she closed her eyes, she could feel it speaking to her, sifting through her consciousness along with the wind. The droid beeped harshly at her feet and she scowled. “Home is that way!” she barked, pointing west.

The little droid beeped again, sounding pitiful, and Rey felt her spirits sink. It had been such a long day. She was so tired, her mouth was dry. She gave the droid a light kick. “Fine. Come on. But I'm not adopting you. Just be quiet. I have a headache.” It wasn’t just any headache either. The moons were crossing. Tonight, she would turn.

Once Home, Rey ushered the little droid inside and tried to make herself comfortable. She was tired and hungry, but she couldn’t rest. She knew she was in for a long night. Hopefully she’d be able to remember most of it, and hopefully Plutt wouldn’t use her for his benefit on some poor drifter.

The old wound on her shoulder twinged painfully. Yes, her time was coming soon. By nightfall, she’d be mostly creature.

She settled down in her makeshift bed and tried to ignore the angry growling of her stomach. The old polystarch just wouldn't cut it tonight. BB-8 made worried beeps at her from the corner.

’I’m tired of this life,’ she thought morosely. ‘I don’t want it anymore.’

Finally, after what felt like hours of wiping away drool and angrily scratching away at the dirt floor, Rey gave an exasperated growl and flung open the door to the cockpit. She could feel them now, the points of her teeth sharpening. Her tongue ran over them lasciviously. The saliva flowed, her blood pumped hot in her veins, beating hard in her ears, flushing in her face. She could smell everything now, every live thing for leagues around. Lizards, birds, whatever poor creature that had not taken solace beneath the sands on this night. She'd shed her boots and sleeves, her veils and belt and let it take her over. Bloodlust. Her eyes flashed gold, like that of a serpent.

Nevermind the lost little droid tonight. The hunger in her belly overpowered everything; not just a hunger for flesh, but for the taste of a man. Quite forgetting her dread from before, her animal mind wished Plutt would throw a man across her path so she could slake her lust.

She crawled silently across the dunes, nearly nude, moving like a wraith. She could smell what she wanted; flesh and blood and bone. The human Rey was seated far in the back of her mind and the Creature was now at the forefront.

She was on the hunt.

~*~

  
Kylo Ren prepared his ship to land on the dark sands of Jakku. He knew Hux’s men were on similar transport ships close behind. He had no tracking device on the droid but knew generally where it would be. It wouldn't take them long to find it, not since they had Unkar Plutt in their grasp. Soon, the map would be his, and Skywalker would follow.

They landed, sand and wind whirling all about, and Ren led the way out into the darkness. There were lights ahead, signaling their close proximity to the Niima outpost. But that's not where he wanted to go. He wanted to branch further out and search the wastes. That's where he suspected the fool Dameron to be concealing himself and the droid.

He allowed Hux’s men to go on ahead to scan the village and question is occupants. Ren kept to the sands and disappeared into the darkness.

His quarry, Poe Dameron, was definitely on this planet. Ren could smell him, almost taste him in the force. He crossed dune after dune, following the faint trail that the pilot had left in his wake. Fool. There was no hiding from Kylo Ren. His senses turned him a little farther north, to the rockier places in the distance.

When he crested the ridge, he was disgusted to be met with a wall of stink; a huge flock of shrieking, flapping, hideous creatures had all gathered into a ravine below and seemed to be in a terrified frenzy, flying and running in all directions. Some came up and flew into his face. He batted then away angrily, sliced a few in half with his saber and gagged at the awful smell of burning feathers and flesh and panic-shit.

Horrible, wretched little planet…

He skirted the flock of flapping, screaming things, trying desperately to keep his senses locked onto the faint traces of Dameron he could still sense, difficult as that was through all that squawking and hideous stink of those vile creatures. But suddenly, at the bottom of the ravine, he saw what it was that had the birdlike-things in such a frenzy, and it almost made his Dark-rotted heart freeze in something quite like terror.

It was a woman, and she had two of those flapping things by the throat. Ren saw blood coating her hands, her face, her bare legs-- her fingers were hooked into claws as she ripped into the creatures, their blood flying everywhere and soaking the sand and rocks around them. She had teeth that were alarmingly sharper than human teeth should be, and they ripped through feathered flesh, making Ren cringe.

Suddenly her gleaming eyes were staring up into his. No, surely she was no woman. There was nothing human about that gaze. The headless things she’d devoured were thrown aside and she was coming for him.

There had been very few times in all of Kylo Ren’s training when the Force had failed him, when he felt like the fragile human that he was. This was one of those times. For the briefest moment, Ren forgot that the Force even existed. At that very moment, he was simply a human man facing down some terrifying creature.

And then she was on him. He was knocked onto his back into the rocks. He felt her hands, frighteningly strong, trying to close around his throat. He kicked, she hissed, screeched. When tried to push her face away from his, her teeth sank into the leather of his glove and he felt the bones in his hand snapping. Ren howled in pain and outrage.

Her face was so close to his now; she could smell her skin and breath. She stank like an animal. Her golden eyes burned fire through his. Gods, how terrifying...

Finally, his powers flooded back into him and he brandished his lightsaber. Its red glow illuminated her face, made the blood that caked her naked cheeks seem black in comparison, and she leapt backward. With incredible animal speed, she was away from him and halfway up the rocky walls of the ravine. Climbing with her bare hands and feet.

“No!” Ren shouted. He thrust his hand forward and caught her, just as her heel was disappearing over the ridge. It wavered on the edge of the rocks and he could hear her hissing and snarling in frustration. “No,” said he again, and he pulled with all the strength the Force gave him, yanking her back down into the ravine.

She gave a very human scream as her body came tumbling back down to him, rocks and pebbles scattering all around her. She hit the ground hard. Those hideous flapping creatures fled from them, squawking loudly.

Ren circled her writhing body. She/it made a few soft whimpers, sounding very like a small girl rather than some reptilian monster, which she looked and acted more like. She was still, finally, and Ren bent down to study her. Her hair was wild and matted with the drying blood of those feathered things. What little clothing was left on her didn’t cover much; she was practically nude. Savage. One breast was exposed and about half her cunt. Upon closer inspection, Ren was puzzled to see that, thought her body had appeared womanish enough, her face seemed much younger. She seemed, then, to be no more than fifteen or sixteen. Hard to tell with these desert woman, though; they were often underdeveloped from a lifetime of malnourishment and hardship. Her fingernails were long, sharp. He pushed at her lips and saw that her teeth were sharp as well. But to his amazement, they seemed to be receding. Before his very eyes, they’d retreated into her gums and were normal. Small, white, unimpressive. He snatched up her small hands and saw that her fingernails, though still filthy and bloodied, were short and had a worried, gnawed look to them.

“What in the hells are you?” he said aloud.

His hand pained him considerably and he stood up. Damned desert bitch. He wondered if he should just kill her then and there.

However, he did not. Maybe it was the youthfulness he could see in her face. Or her pitiful nakedness. Either way, he could not draw his saber against her again. Ren took of his helmet and sighed, breathing in the night air.

What, then, to do with her?

If he left her there, she may very well die of exposure. Dirty little desert brat that she was… perhaps he should just return her to whatever hidey-hole she occupied and hope that she didn’t come awake and attempt to devour him again in the process.

He pitched her over his shoulder and left the ravine. He could see, if he squinted hard enough, that there was a serpentine track winding through the dunes, leading west. Like it had been left by a giant snake. It had probably been left by her. He groaned, wishing he could just dump her limp body in the nearest sand pit.

After trudging about a half mile, Ren saw what he was looking for. In the distance, he spotted what appeared to be an old, overturned AT-AT; wreckage from the old Jakku wars. Her track seemed to lead right to it.

Up close, the AT-AT was not impressive. It was dark and silent. Ren couldn’t believe a human being would purposefully make her home there. Though, he supposed she had little better choice in such a wretched place.

He dropped her unceremoniously inside on a pile of blankets that appeared to serve as her bed. Though it was nearly pitch black inside, Ren’s helmet scanner picked up all the details of the tiny room. He could see scratch marks covering the walls, lined up perfectly. He traced them with his uninjured hand and wondered at them.

Quiet beeping issued from the corner and Ren whirled around. A droid. _His_ droid. The one he’d been looking for.

“Well, well,” he purred, cornering the droid. “Looks like the desert rat came in handy, after all.” Using the force, Ren deactivated BB-8. How convenient and small; he would only have drag it back to his ship.

As the pain in his hand grew more intense, Ren turned his back on the girl. He was fairly positive she was out cold and would not wake to attack him.

Good riddance.

He pulled off his glove tenderly and grimaced. She’d pierced his flesh. Blood seeped from the little sharp teeth marks she’d left on him. Filthy little beast… and gods, did it ever hurt.

With the deactivated droid in tow, he boarded his ship, not bothering to wait for the soldiers that had accompanied him. Hux would surely send a convoy for them. His hand pained him, but finally, he had that ridiculous droid he’d been searching for. Poe mattered not at all now.

Success.

  
~*~

  
On the Finalizer, Ren directed his Knights to take the droid to the engineering wing to be analyzed. Soon, the plans would be extracted and Skywalker would be his. However, that didn't matter quite as much to him in that moment as it did the last time he had stood on that bridge. His hand ached and he longed to get to the solitude of the medbay have it healed. Most importantly, he wanted to avoid the questioning gaze of Armitage Hux at all cost.

Sinply thinking about the man seemed to have summoned him.

“Ran into some trouble, did you?” Hux suddenly rounded the corner and Ren jerked backward, swearing colorfully. He grasped at his naked hand to conceal it from the commander, but was too slow. Hux’s eyes were sharp. “So I suppose it didn't go as smoothly as you'd hoped. What happened, then?”

“Nothing happened,” snarled the taller man as he shoved his way past Hux. He moved to pull his glove back on but Hux was like a quick little fox; he snatched it out of Kylo’s grip.

“What is that? Did something _bite_ you? I didn't know they made droids that could bite.”

“Very funny. It's nothing. Leave me be.”

“Looks nasty. Stop walking so fast. Going to medbay? What happened, anyway? I heard you found the droid. My engineers are analyzing it now. What happened down there?” He struggled to keep up with Ren.

“Nothing.”

“That doesn't look like nothing,” he said pointedly to Kylo’s mangled hand. It was beginning to swell. He attempted to plant himself in front of the Knight. “I would like to be debriefed, please.”

“Later,” Kylo said gruffly, shoving the General aside. He was in pain. His entire hand burned, ached. The smaller bones in it were definitely broken and were rubbing together in a very uncomfortable manner. All he wanted was bacta. Bacta, something to knock him out, and blessed, blessed sleep. He was exhausted.

Hux grabbed at Ren’s wrist and peered at the back of his hand. “Gods, what _is_ that? Did someone really bite you? What in the bloody hell happened down there?” He scoffed as Ren jerked his hand away. “It wasn't a man, was it? Looks too small to have been a man. Looks like a child bit you.” He chuckled to himself, still following the Knight down the winding corridors. “Did you let some feral desert child bite you, Ren?”

The taller man sighed heavily, feeling defeated. He cared about nothing, now. Only bacta and rest. He didn't even care about being punished by Snoke for his weakness. “No, it was a woman.”

Hux stopped laughing. “A wo—”

Ren kept walking, but after a moment, he realized that his footsteps were the only ones echoing off the durasteel walls. He turned and saw that Hux had stopped in his tracks. His brow was furrowed and his mouth was twisted. Kylo sighed again. “What is it?”

Hux only shook his head. “A woman?”

“Yes.”

“A woman. A Jakku woman.”

“Yes?”

Hux exhaled loudly and ran nervous hands through his hair. Then he looked around as if he were afraid someone were listening to their conversation. They happened to be alone in that particular corridor. He rubbed his mouth, looking to be deep in thought.

Ren was getting annoyed, the pain in his hand throbbing an unbearable tempo. “What?”

Hux shook his head rapidly from side to side and motioned for Ren to follow him. The taller man hesitated at first, thinking only of his bacta and his hospital bed. But Hux seemed very persistent. Soon, the red-haired man had to drag Ren bodily from the corridor and into a small side room. It appeared to be a study of sorts, or a small conference-type room. He pushed Ren into a chair and sat down in one opposite him. He ran nervous hands once again through his hair.

“What am I doing in this kriffing room?” said Ren, low and dangerous. His eyes were half-lidded with fatigue and fever pain.

Hux took a deep breath. “What happened down on Jakku?”

”Damn it, Hux. What does it _matter_?”

“Just tell me!”

Ren sighed. “It happened so quickly… I was searching for Dameron. I could feel him through the force. I was following him through the wastes. And I found this ravine. It was deep. There were creatures in it, these awful, loud, squawking feathered creatures, flying all over the place, terrified of something. It was chaos. And then there she was… this woman. Thing. It wasn't really a woman, but it was. It was… terrifying.”

“How did you know it was a woman?” asked Hux.

Ren waved off the question as if it were irksome. “She was almost naked. Almost completely naked. She was human. Her hair, breasts, genitals were female. I'm not an idiot.”

Hux frowned. “I wasn't suggesting you were.”

Ren studied his aching hand. “Her strength was fearsome. I've never really been truly terrified of anything, but I came pretty close when I saw that. I've never seen anything quite like it. She was… like some animal… devouring those things whole, alive, with her bare hands, with her teeth; sharp teeth. Claws. And there was blood…”

Hux’s face was pale. Ren wondered whether the General would be ill. Hux took a deep breath and spoke.

“It's been a long time since I was in training. Back at the academy, they used to tell us tales. Things to spook us young men out of cavorting with the women of any given race or planet. The dregs, you know. Slags. ‘Stay away from the prostitutes on Coruscant, else they'll give you the Black Clap’ and ‘Don’t go anywhere near the whores that hang around the chemical mines on Quesh because they all have Strep-G.’ Things like that. I doubt any of that was really true. In fact, I don't think those diseases even exist. It was simply to scare us young boys straight, to keep our minds on our missions and training and out of the gutter, so to speak. To keep the reputation of the academy pure. Well, one of the tales was always ‘Stay away from the Jakku women. They're dangerous.’”

Ren stared at him blankly. “Dangerous,” he repeated. “Rather vague. No desert herpes? Spacepox?”

Hux rolled his eyes. “I've heard different things. And no; no _spacepox_. What's the matter with you? I've heard that they hunt and kill men, that they steal their souls, that they drink their blood, eat their bones, sell them into slavery after they rape them… point is, I've heard so many different tales that I don't know what's true. The only common theme is that they're dangerous. That you should fear them. All men should fear them. And you let one bite you.”

“I didn't _let_ her bite me--”

Hux waved his hand. “I just can't believe you've never heard that bit about Jakku women. I thought everyone knew that.”

“I've never been to your stupid academy!” said Ren angrily.

“Doesn't matter.” Hux appeared to be thinking very hard. He chewed his bottom lip and stared at Kylo’s hand. “Go to the medbay,” he said finally. “But I wouldn't say what happened, if I were you.”

Ren looked affronted. “Why not? Who cares about your ridiculous schoolboy myths?”

“They weren't just myths!” Hux hissed. “And I don't mean the black pox or the other ridiculously-named fictitious diseases. I mean the deaths and the disappearances. I mean men, good men, soldiers, students, disappearing into brothels, into the wastes of these planets and never being seen again. Especially on Jakku.” Hux’s face looked dark with memories long lost. “I've lost more than my share of men to the wastes of Jakku. So have many generals before me. Not just to battle, mind you. They just… vanish. And it nearly always makes it back in the reports that the men were off cavorting with the local whores. The desert women. The slags.” He rubbed his mouth. “I don't know. I don't know, Ren. It might be nothing. I'm just telling you what I know. But like I said, you'd better get that looked at, and I'd keep quiet about exactly what it was that bit you, if I were you.”

“Snoke will know, at the very least. Snoke will definitely know.”

“Well, you'll just have to cross that bridge when you get to it. For now, fix that hand. It looks… ugly.”

Ren jumped to his feet. “I was trying to get that done before you pulled me into this fucking room!” The Knight stormed out, leaving Hux worrying behind him. He didn't look back.

~*~

Later that night, just before the sun rose, Rey came to in her AT-AT. Her body ached and she felt a large welt developing on the back of her head. Her mouth was dry and tasted of old blood.

 _What happened_? was her first thought.

And then, _ah yes, the man._

Her eyes fluttered closed again and she stretched herself out over the sandy floor, feeling the delicious effects of the moons still simmering under her skin. She tasted his blood in her mouth still.

Yummy.

Her hands traveled over her naked stomach as her animal brain remembered the flock in the ravine, then the dark man and his burning saber. He’d smelled of meat and maleness, young virility and blood pounding through sleek, hardened muscle. She could practically still smell the male spunk smell of him. Her naked quim felt hot thinking of it.

She smacked her lips and fell back asleep, dreaming of how hot and hard he’d felt against her as she sank his teeth into him.

Delicious.

~*~

  
In the medbay, Ren lay sprawled across his bed, staring idly at his bandaged hand. It still ached considerably. Watching the medics tend to it had been somewhat nauseating; when they peeled his glove off, the wound looked to be in the stages of advanced infection, even though it was only a few hours old.

As he studied the bandaging, he felt anger simmering inside him. How dare some desert rat female attack him, Master of the Knights of Ren. She put her filthy, scavenger hands on him. _And_ ruined one of his best pairs of gloves, to boot.

Ren was angry, but also curiously intrigued by this monstrous desert girl. He’d never been overpowered by a woman before. It was foreign, and while it embarrassed him, it also somewhat aroused him. She’d been lean, sweaty, filthy, naked and savage. It appealed to the savage within him.

He focused all the anger that his master had always encouraged him to feed. It felt delicious, like warm justice. He flexed his injured hand as gingerly as he could and vowed to return to Jakku to kill the bitch that mangled him so. He’d go it alone, in the bright light of day, if possible. Something told him that whatever creature slumbered within that desert female lost its strength during the day, or at least slumbered in the shade like other desert creatures tended to do.

He felt his cock twitch pleasantly when he recalled her naked rear hanging over the edge of the cliff. Adjusting himself thoughtfully, he made a mental note to consider fucking her before he killed her. Just to let off a little steam.

However, Hux’s words rang in his mind.

 _“Stay away from the Jakku women. They’re dangerous_.”

Would she give him some sort of disease? Try to kill him again? Who knew… all he knew was that he was angry, he was hungry, and he wanted revenge against the little tramp that broke his hand.

                             ~*~

As she usually did when she awoke from her semi-monthly nighttime fugue, Rey felt as if her body had been put through a ringer. Even though it was hot and stuff inside the AT-AT, she felt cold and sick. Her stomach felt like heavy lead. Oh, the nausea… she rolled over and hid her face in the dirty blankets of her bed.

No longer was she under the moons’ influence. The lust and hunger didn’t pump through her veins anymore. It had turned to cold ash in her belly. Now, she just felt like a sick and empty vessel.

With shaking hands, she gathered up a pair of pants and a light shirt and pulled them on. She was still dirty, but she’d worry about cleaning herself when she woke up. For now, Rey would simply burrow herself deeper in her blankets and sleep off her hunting hangover. The sound of the wind in the sand lulled her into a deep sleep, and though she would not later remember it, she dreamed of living on one of the cursed moons and being chased by a dark man who both loved her and hunted her.

~*~

  
The sun overhead blazed hot. Ren felt himself roasting inside all his black clothing, but he ignored the discomfort, as years of discipline had trained him to do. The scanner in his helmet indicated that the fallen AT-AT he’d left her in was just over the next ridge.

He’d given it two days; two days of thought and planning, and back on Jakku he was. For _her_.

He saw no activity outside of the AT-AT, though there was some junky old vehicle parked outside. She must have been home, leaving scavenging for another day.

He approached slowly. No doubt the girl’s ears were attuned to the sound of stalking predators. His gloved, uninjured hand closed around what he assumed was the makeshift handle to some sort of door, and he stealthily pulled it open.

What he saw rather surprised him. There was the girl, though she looked quite different when clean, with her hair tidied and clothes on. She was curled against a pile of blankets, fast asleep. Her face was pale and sickly looking. She looked so… so small and weak. Ren could only stand there in the open doorway, staring down at her tiny, huddled form.

His Force senses licked out, touching every corner of the abandoned AT-AT almost of their own volition. He could tell she was alone and indeed asleep. And he could definitely sense that she was ill.

He looked down at his injured hand, which was bandaged tightly beneath a new set of gloves. It still smarted painfully and the infection seemed not to be clearing up. He tried to remember his anger from before but found he could not, not while he looked down at her looking so pale and weak.

Ren sighed and peered outside. Apart from the wind, it was silent out there.

He decided to wake her. Ask her what she was, why she attacked him and if she had any last words before he maybe killed her. Maybe.

He activated his saber and the hissing noise that it made caused her to stir. She sighed softly and opened bleary eyes, blinking up at him. He enjoyed watching the confusion on her face change slowly to shock, then fear. The fear was always his favorite part; it warmed his belly pleasantly, and suddenly he remembered her naked breasts and sweating body pressed to his.

The frightened girl glanced sideways at a long metal rod she kept by her little “bed” for protection. Ren raised his saber, shaking his head slowly. The girl gulped and cringed back against her blankets. “Who are you?” she whispered.

Ren chuckled low in his throat. “Don’t you remember, scavenger?” Her wide eyes excited him. Gone were the fangs and sharp claws; here was just a sick young girl, fearing for her life.

Ren smiled.

~*~

Though the heat from the sun and from his saber was intense, Rey felt cold chills traveling through her. She licked her dry lips and suddenly knew; yes, this was the same man she’d gotten a taste of two nights prior. Now that the moons had shifted, she was back to her usual self, but as always when that happened, she felt weak and ill. Her empty stomach churned and she felt as if she would vomit.

“Please,” she whispered. “I’m—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

She heard the man laugh, his voice deep and frightening through the voice modulator. Though it was only two nights ago, she struggled to remember the sinful thoughts she’d had of him while she was still in her moons’ throes. He’d been so tempting then, but now as she looked up at him she felt only dread.

He slid the glove from his right hand and held it up. “Do you see this? It’s your handiwork.”

Rey gulped again. His hand was bandaged. The exposed skin looked infected.

She’d infected him.

She felt her body starting to shake. “I—I don’t—“

The man powered down his saber and hooked it to his belt. He donned his glove again and stepped closer to her. “You injured me. Do you even know who I am?”

She shook her head vigorously.

“Haven’t you ever heard of the Knights of Ren?”

“Please,” she begged.

He stride forward and kicked at her blankets. “Please what?” He held his fist up again. “You’ve done something to me. This isn’t a normal wound. You will tell me now what you’ve done and how I might mend it.”

Rey could only stare at him open-mouthed, slowly shaking her head.

The man crouched down to be at eye level with her. His mask was so intimidating… gods, was she about to die?

The young girl let her head fall back against the blankets and tears welled up in her eyes. She was so tired, so sick… she had nothing to fight him with. She stared up at the ceiling of her dirty old AT-AT, thought of the desert and the heat, of constant thirst and sweat and hunger. What did she have left to live for, anyway? Her lip trembled and she wondered whether or not this man taking her life would be an act of mercy.

Suddenly, she felt his strong hand wrap around hers and he was yanking her to her feet. “Come with me,” he ordered.

Rey began to cry. “Please don’t, I’m sorry I hurt you. Please just let me rest.”

At that, the man scooped her up and carried her out of the interior of the AT-AT and into the blinding sun. It made her splitting headache even worse. Her stomach lurched again and she was sick on the ground at his feet.

If that displeased him, he gave no indication of it. The man merely hugged her tighter to his chest and marched across the sands with her.

Rey was in and out—the hot, blinding sun made her close her eyes and slip into fever dreams as the man dragged her through the desert. She saw him in her dreams, standing in the ravine and beckoning to her. He was in her AT-AT with her, smoothing her sweaty hair, bending to kiss her, or bite her… it was hard to tell. She saw the old base at Carbon Ridge again, the one Plutt had taken her to, deep in the desert. She saw the others that had been turned with her.

Where was he taking her?

~*~

She came to again in cold, stark awareness. The room she was in was bare; steel walls, steel floors. Her body, still aching, was strapped to some kind of metal table. Almost like an interrogation room. Rey whimpered and struggled against restraints.

Something stirred in the corner and she was startled to see the robed and masked man standing there. Terror welled within her.

Yes. This was an investigation. And torture? Well, it wouldn’t be her first round of torture and probably not the last.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“My ship.” She could see him still cradling his injured hand. “I have some questions I want to ask you.

Rey’s eyes shot nervously around the room. “Questions?”

“Yes.” The dark man approached her table, looking passively down at her.

She tried so hard to hide the trembling in her voice. “I—I don't know much about anything, really. Please… take me back to my home.”

He scoffed. “Home? You call that battered old thing a home?”

“It’s all I know.”

Ren shook his head and circled her table. “Tell me what you are. Where do you come from?”

The girl was quiet for a long time, but Ren could be quite patient when he wanted to. He thumped her on the shoulder, hard.

“I don’t know,” she gasped.

“Are you a half-breed or something? What’s wrong with you that makes you turn into some beast?”

“Please,” she begged. Her stomach was still churning horribly. She couldn’t bear the thought of being sick again on the steel floor.

“I have all the time in the world,” he told her, circling the table. “Talk.”

“Unkar Plutt!” she cried, pulling against the restraints. “It’s his fault. He did this to me. When I was young. All us girls… he took us out to the Carbon Ridge base—“

“That base has been abandoned longer than you’ve been alive,” Ren spat.

“Only monsters live there now.” Her voice trembled. She was tired, so tired… “There is a creature that lives there. It, it can change you. Or eat you.”

“What do you mean, ‘change?’”

Rey’s eyes squeezed shut, forcing out a few tears. “Please, it’s hazy now, I don’t remember—“

The man slammed his fist onto the table next to her head, making Rey cry out in fear. “You _will_ remember.” He held his fist to her face. “Have you any idea how much this hurts? It’s infecting my entire arm. And I can’t make it stop. No doctors can make it stop. Do you know why? Because I never told them what exactly got a hold of me. I never said a Jakku desert rat like you got to me. And I’ve been told it has to stay that way. So, it’s up to you. You will tell me now what’s happening to me and how I can make it stop.”

“I can’t,” she wept. “I don’t know how.”

“ _Tell me_!”

“It’s because of what I am!” she cried. “You’re infected now! It’s like a virus! You can’t heal it and you can’t stop it! It’s incurable. I should have killed you… you should have let me kill you! It would be better than what you’ll become!”

Ren pulled back with a deep frown. “What I’ll become? You mean like you?” The anger was returning now, simmering in his gut and making him see red. “Some… creature?”

When she nodded tearfully, he swore and threw his helmet across the room. It banged loudly in the corner, making Rey cry out again.

“This is madness,” he said, pacing the room. “This makes no sense. I’ve never heard of anything like this. And how could it happen to me, of all warriors?” He turned to glare at her. “To think that you…”

The young girl’s lip quivered. “If you stay on this planet, you’ll become subhuman when the moons cross paths. It will last for one night, every seventeen days. You’ll have no choice.”

“And what of my damn hand!?” he shouted into her face.

She cringed. “It will heal eventually. Mine did.” Her eyes traveled down to a faint scar on her left shoulder. “I have a, a mineral mud in my AT-AT. It may help you.”

Ren scoffed. “Mud? That’s the best you have to offer me?” He reached out to grasp her by the chin. His uninjured hand was rough. “That’s supposed to satisfy me?”

Rey felt color rising to her face. She broke eye contact with him. “I… do you require satisfaction?”

“What?” He narrowed his eyes, her jaw still firmly gripped in his hand.

“I can… if you want.” Rey closed her eyes, hoping that he wouldn’t take her up on the offer. It wouldn’t be the first time she had to pleasure a man. Plutt made her do it all the time to the men he found, the ones he decided he wanted robbed and killed for their money or loot. Or ships.

“You can _what_?”

Rey only blinked at him, a dark blush stealing across her cheeks.

He laughed, then, shaking his head at her. “What, will that cure me or something? Do the juices from your quim have healing properties?”

Tired and sick though she was, Rey didn’t appreciate being mocked. “No,” she said quietly. “Nothing can heal you.”

That angered him and he swore again. He took to pacing around the table. “I need to speak to Hux. He needs to know. For some reason, he knows all about you Jakku slags.”

‘Slag?’ thought Rey. Anger flamed inside her. ‘Insufferable Order bastard…’

“Should have just killed you when I had the chance...”

“Yes, probably,” she spat. She tried hard to swallow her frustration but failed.

He was reaching out to her again, no doubt to throttle her in an impotent rage. She cried out, “No!”

Ren felt a knife of pain sharply in his hand. Like whatever was poisoning him had ignited. He could see that her eyes had flashed that inhuman golden color again, and when she narrowed them, the pain grew more intense.

He hissed and cradled his glove. “What are you doing to me? Stop!”

‘It can’t be,’ he thought. ‘Is she… manipulating the Force to hurt me?’

He heard her grunt in concentration. Her head fell back against the table with a loud thump. She’d passed out again. Ren stared in horror down at her still-quivering body. Whatever Force sensations he’d felt moments prior had now vanished and his hand returned to aching dully again.

“Damn it,” he cursed.

No. She couldn’t possibly be a Force-sensitive. Not some creature like her, subhuman as she was. What in the hells was wrong with her? What was she?

There was only one logical choice; he had to speak to Hux, and she had to stay alive so he could get more information out of her. But he couldn’t keep her, for obvious reasons. Many an eyebrow would be raised at him bringing a bedraggled girl aboard the Finalizer. Snoke would surely disapprove. No… she would have to stay here on this wretched planet for now.

While she slept, Ren returned her to her AT-AT. There was really nothing he could do to ensure she stayed there… he had no way of monitoring her. However, he assumed she wouldn’t get far if she tried to go anywhere. She probably didn’t have anywhere to go anyway.

He took a long look at her. The hollows beneath her eyes were even more pronounced than they were before. She looked so pale and little. Hard to believe that she’d attacked him so viciously before. Ren almost felt sorry for her. He knelt down to cover her with a blanket, then drew away, wondering at his own actions.

He left her there, slumbering fitfully in the heat. It would be nearly a week before he’d return.

 

 

END OF PART ONE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
